Ambulance strike suspended following commitments on staffing and pay

Unions are disappointed that the employers have suspended negotiations over the new collective agreement covering ambulance workers. With a restructuring of the sector the employers and unions agreed to negotiate a single agreement for the sector to replace a number of different agreements. Unions thought that it would be possible to announce that a new agreement was ready on 1 September but now the employers have raised concerns over two issues – redundancy pay and second careers (this is the career that ambulance workers might switch to once they are too old for active duty. The unions say

A planned series of protests by the FNV trade union was suspended earlier this month following an initial commitment from the government to additional funding for the ambulance service. The union had set 15 November as the first day of action in a campaign to highlight the issue of serious staff shortages which had led to 20 of the 24 regional services failing to meet performance targets. The campaign has been suspended until 15 January on the basis of the health minister's proposal for an extra EUR 10 million a year for training and recruitment and a one-off investment of EUR 5.7 million to

Following a demonstration on 15 October the CGSP/ACOD trade union federation has said it will suspend its strike action in the prison service until 21 November. Any further strike action will depend on the outcome of negotiations over working conditions that are due on 3 November and on increases to pay that are set for 15 November. The CSC federation has also called off any strike action, informing its members that the priority now is to negotiate over the agreement covering the period 2007-2011. [Read more at > CGSP (FR)->http://www.cgsp-ministeres.be/] [And at > CSC (FR)->http://csc